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back to Spain in the best manner he could; and | Western Isles, some were stranded in Norway, as it was held dangerous to attempt the English in their narrow seas, he resolved to steer northwards and return to Spain by sailing round Scotland.

On the last day of July, Drake wrote to Walsingham-"There was never anything pleased me better than the seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the northward. We have the Spaniards before us, and mind, with the grace of God, to wrestle a pull with them." No one can doubt of the activity and good-will of Drake, of Frobisher, of any one of the great captains engaged; but yet the Spaniards were allowed to go down the wind without much pursuit. "The opportunity," says Sir William Monson, "was lost, not through the negligence or backwardness of the lord-admiral, but merely through the want of providence in those that had the charge of furnishing and providing for the fleet; for at that time of so great advantage, when they came to examine their provisions, they found a general scarcity of powder and shot, for want of which they were forced to return home. Another opportunity was lost, not much inferior to the other, by not sending part of our fleet to the west of Ireland, where the Spaniards of necessity were to pass, after so many dangers and disasters as they had endured. If we had been so happy as to have followed their course, as it was both thought and discoursed of, we had been absolutely victorious over this great and formidable navy; for they were brought to that necessity that they would willingly have yielded, as divers of them confessed that were shipwrecked in Ireland." In effect, when the Spaniards had rounded the Orkneys, they were dispersed and shattered by a tremendous tempest, the more perilous from their want of a proper knowledge of those seas and coasts. They threw overboard horses, mules, artillery, and baggage. Some of the ships were dashed to pieces among the Orkneys and the

True and Exact Account of the Wars in Spain. The remarkable fact of the fleet being left bare of ammunition is confirmed by a letter written on the 8th of August, from the camp at Tilbury Fort, by Secretary Walsingham to the lord-chancellor. -Bright. It appears, however, that a part of the fleet followed the Spaniards all along the English and Scottish coast, as far as the Firth of Forth.

Camden; Stow; Strada: Bentivoglio; Strype; Burghley Papers; Hardwick Papers; Southey; Ellis; Wright.

some went down at sea with every soul on board, some were cast upon the iron coast of Argyle, and more than thirty were driven on the coast of Ireland, where the popular name of Port-naSpagna, bestowed on a place near the Giant's Causeway, recals a part of the fearful catastrophe. Those who fell among the Scotch were made prisoners by King James; but the poor Spaniards who fell amoug the Irish had a worse fate-an eternal blot on the glory of those who inflicted it. The English feared that they might join the Irish Catholics, who were again in insurrection; and Sir William Fitzwilliam, the lord-deputy, sent his marshal, who drove them out of their hiding-places and butchered 200 of them in cold blood. The rest, sick and starved, committed themselves to the greater mercy of the waves in their shattered vessels, and for the most part were drowned. A small squadron was driven back to the English Channel, where, with the exception of one great ship, it was taken by the English, or by their allies the Dutch, or their other friends the Huguenots, who had equipped many privateers at Rochelle. The Duke of Medina, about the end of September, arrived at Santander, in the Bay of Biscay, with no more than sixty sail out of his whole fleet, and these very much shattered, with their crews all worn out with cold, and hunger, and sickness, and looking like spectres. The Lord-admiral of England had anchored safely in the Downs on the 8th of August, having lost but very few men and only one vessel of any consequence. Military skill and flat-bottomed boats could avail the Duke of Parma nothing against the victorious navy of England; and though an alarm was absurdly kept up for some months, the danger was over from the moment that the disorganized Armada retreated to the north.2 About the middle of August, the camp at Tilbury Fort was broken up.3

seemed to have been endowed with so much ability and activity only for mischief. He looked with a sort of horror on the in dependence of the human mind, and believed himself called. upon to destroy it everywhere; the freedom of subjects and the liberty of consciences to him appeared alike sacrilegious; he saw a revolt in every pretension to enlightenment; and as he had placed his civil and religious despotism under the safeguard of his faith, as he believed he was God's champion in destroying all liberty on the earth, all means seemed good to him, no scruple The Armada must have cost Philip immense efforts, for stopped him, his conscience recoiled from no cruelty, no perfidy; Sismondi represents him as too weak effectually to repel even he went straight towards his object through more blood and the hostilities of Catherine de' Medici, acting independently of more crimes than were ever lavished by any other monarch; France. "The attacks made by Catherine and Monsieur, how he believed he would succeed, for he subdued province after ever, did not bring down," he says, "on France very serious province, he extinguished one rebellion after another in blood; reprisals, for Philip II. had annihilated the power, wealth, and but his pestilential breath dispeopled the kingdoms that were energy of all the states over which he had extended his domina- subject to him, and notwithstanding the immensity of his states, tion. This prince-who, in the silence of his solitude, amid his he could not keep on foot armies equal to those of any of the apparent repose, was so active and so entirely devoted to the sovereigns whom he had succeeded in Castile, in Aragon, at pursuit of his vast projects-who himself directed the whole Granada, in the Two Sicilies, at the Duchy of Milan, in the policy of his cabinet-who wrote out with his own hand the Low Countries, in the kingdoms of Peru and of Mexico."greater part of his despatches-who, in fine, was so truly king-Sismondi, Hist. de Français, tom. xx. p. 23.

When the disbanding of the troops was over, the Earl of Leicester took his departure from court for Kenilworth Castle, but he fell suddenly ill on the road, and died at Cornbury in Oxfordshire, on the 4th day of September. The queen did not appear to grieve much for his loss, and almost immediately after his death she caused his effects to be sold by auction, for the satisfaction of certain debts he owed her treasury.' The fact was, the queen had been for some time provided with another darling, to whom she transferred the strange affection which for so many years she had bestowed on Leicester. This new favourite was Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,

ROBERT DEVEREUX, Earl of Essex.-After Oliver.

son of the unfortunate earl who had died in Ireland, and whose wife had been very irregularly married to Leicester. At first the queen hated him on his mother's account, but this feeling gave way to an admiration of his handsome person and vivacious disposition. He was made master of the horse, knight of the Garter, and captain-general of the cavalry in 1587, before he was twenty years of age. Upon the death of Leicester he succeeded at once to the dangerous post of prime favourite-a post almost as disagreeable as it was dangerous, for it called for the daily and hourly exercise of flattery and gallantry towards an old woman, a sort of service which ill suited the frank and impetuous character of Essex.

Don Antonio, an illegitimate A.D. 1589. nephew of Henry, King of Portugal, and one of the pretenders to the crown of

It appears that there were two stories, one being that he was poisoned by his wife; the other, that his death had been hastened by magic and conjuring.

that kingdom, had taken refuge in England, where for some time he was left to pine in abject poverty. But now Elizabeth resolved to use him as a means of annoying Philip of Spain, in his recent usurpation of Portugal. She boldly set forth that Don Antonio was a legitimate prince, and her parliament, breathing revenge and conquest, voted her most liberal supplies, and petitioned her to carry the war into Philip's dominions. She told them that she was very poor, and needed all the money they had voted; but thereupon an association, headed by Drake and Norris, undertook to defray the greater part of the expenses, and in a short time they collected an armament of about 200 sail of all sizes, carrying nearly 20,000 men. Don Antonio embarked in royal state, and the fleet commanded by Drake set sail. It was scarcely gone out of Plymouth when the queen was thrown into tender anxieties by missing the young Earl of Essex, who had disobeyed her orders, and gone to indulge his taste for war. The expedition was badly planned, miserably supplied with money and ammunition, and but lamely conducted after the landing of the troops. It was also disgraced by cruelties unusual even in that age. Drake repaired in the first instance to Corunna, where he took four ships of war and burned the lower town. The troops, which were commanded by Sir John Norris, defeated a body of Spaniards intrenched in the neighbourhood, but they could not take the upper town; and as their powder began to fall short, and sickness to rage in their ranks, they were re-embarked and carried to Peniche, on the Portuguese coast. From Peniche the fleet proceeded to the mouth of the Tagus, while the army marched through Torres-Vedras to Lisbon, proclaiming everywhere their Don Antonio. But, contrary to their expectations, no one joined the Don, and they found the country laid waste and bare. There was only a weak Spanish garrison within Lisbon, and the English said they would certainly have taken that capital if it had not been for their total want of proper artillery! Famine was now added to sickness; and Norris, who had disagreed with Drake as to the management of the campaign, thought the best thing to do was to re-embark and return home. The young Earl of Essex displayed a romantic bravery, yet the campaign, on the whole, was exceedingly inglorious. When they counted their numbers at Plymouth, more than one-half of their 20,000 had perished, or were missing.

On his return to court, Essex found that he had been nearly supplanted in the royal favour by Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Charles Blount, the latter, second son of Lord Mountjoy, and a student in the Temple; but he soon prevailed over these aspirants. Raleigh was sent into

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Ireland, where he remained for several years; and, after fighting a duel with him, Essex contracted a great friendship for Blount, who soon afterwards became Earl of Mountjoy. But though Essex enjoyed the queen's good graces, and readily obtained gifts and favours for himself, he was generally unsuccessful in his applications for his friends, being constantly thwarted by the jealousy of the Cecils, and their party. In 1590, when Walsingham, the principal secretary, died, Essex earnestly pressed the claims of the unfortunate William Davison, who had been sacrificed to a state subterfuge; but the "old fox," as Essex called Lord Burghley, was resolved to put his son Robert, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, in Walsingham's place. The queen, beset by these rival parties, had recourse to one of those middle means which were familiar to her; she desired Burghley to take upon himself the vacant place, with permission to his son to act as his assistant. Essex, who was rather passionate than malicious, soon forgot the dispute, but it was treasured up in the cold, hollow heart of Sir Robert Cecil. About this time Essex married the widow of the lamented Sir Philip Sidney, who was a daughter of Walsingham. This was gall and wormwood to the queen, who, however, gradually seemed to forget the offence.

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perfidy and double-dealing; but when the French king agreed to maintain an offensive and defensive war against Philip, as long as Philip should remain at war with England, she was fain to be satisfied.

Henry IV. derived no very great advantage from his war with Spain, to which Elizabeth had bound him. He saw Champagne invaded and Burgundy threatened, Picardy overrun and Doullens and Cambrai taken by the Spaniards; and in the month of April, 1596, the Archduke Albert, who had succeeded to the government of the Spanish Netherlands, took from him the town and citadel of Calais. Elizabeth, who had of late been very sparing of her money and troops, was alarmed at the latter conquest, which brought the Spaniards, who were again talking of invasion, to the very threshold of her own door, and her grief and consternation were great, as her two chief naval commanders, Drake and Hawkins, had died of sickness and vexation in the preceding year, in the course of a very unsuccessful expedition to Spanish America. She now took to writing prayers, and Sir Robert Cecil told Essex that no prayer is so fruitful as that which proceedeth from those who nearest in nature and power approach the Almighty; but the Lord Howard of Effingham, thinking that something In the following year, 1591, the earl, whose more was wanting, suggested another attack upon ruling passion was a love of military glory, passed the Spanish coast; and in the month of June, over to France with a small army of 4000 men, 1596, a fleet of 150 sail, with 14,000 land troops, to assist Henry of Navarre, now Henry IV. of sailed from Plymouth. The lord-admiral took the France. Henry, on the death of his predecessor, command of the fleet, and the Earl of Essex of found himself opposed by the French Catholic the army; but to make up for the inexperience League, and obliged to strengthen his right of and rashness of the young earl, he was ordered birth with the right of conquest. He attempted, to submit all important measures to a council of judeed, to disarm the hostility of the Catholic war, composed of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir George party by large concessions; but this so incensed Carew, and other tried officers. In the month the Huguenots, who had hitherto been his sup- of June the fleet sailed into Cadiz Bay, and in port, and in whose religion he had been brought defiance of the fire from the forts and battlements up, that they threatened to leave him to the fury and fifteen large men-of-war, they got into the of his enemies. He was forced to abandon for harbour, where, after a fierce fight, which lasted a time the siege of Paris, and to retire into Nor- six hours, three of the largest of the Spanish ships mandy. At this crisis he applied to his old secret were taken, and about fifty sail were plundered ally, Queen Elizabeth, who very opportunely sup- and burned. As soon as this was over, Essex plied him with £20,000 in gold, and with some disembarked a part of the land force, and on the troops. Essex greatly distinguished himself, and next day he forced the city of Cadiz to capitulate. lost by a musket-shot his only brother, Walter The inhabitants paid 12,000 crowns for their Devereux, to whom he was fondly attached. lives; their houses, their merchandise, their goods Other expeditions were sent over from time to of all kinds were plundered by the conquerors, time, that contributed to check the enemies of and the whole loss sustained by the Spaniards Henry, particularly in Brittany, where the on this occasion was estimated at 20,000,000 duSpaniards, in alliance with the lords of the League, cats. Essex, who was the real hero of this short nad landed a considerable force. This war, though campaign, would have retained the conquest, and omewhat costly, and contributing in no very he offered to remain at Cadiz and Isla de Leon direct manner to any English interest, was very with 3000 men, but he was overruled, and compopular with the Protestants; but in 1593, Hen-pelled to re-embark, having first seen the fortiy, to secure peace to his throne, embraced the fications razed. Catholic religion. Elizabeth charged him with

On the return of this expedition, which was not

absent above ten weeks, dissensions and jealousies the destruction of the new Armada in its own broke out among the commanders, and the queen ports, for the intercepting of the treasure ships, was incensed at the small portion of the plunder and the harassing the Spanish coasts and colonies. which was brought to her treasury. The Cecils The command was given to the ardent Essex, had taken advantage of his absence to undermine who had under him Lord Thomas Howard and the great credit of Essex, and now he was insi- Sir Walter Raleigh. The fleet sailed from Plymouth in the month of July, 1597, but it was almost immediately driven back upon the coast by a tremendous storm, which disabled many of the It did not ships.

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get to sea again till

the 17th of August,

diously assailed from all sides, and Sir Walter Raleigh intrigued against him, and claimed to himself the chief merit of the expedition. Essex was sinking to rise no more, when a lucky accident came to his assistance. The Spanish treasure ships from the New World arrived safely in Spain, with 20,000,000 dollars on board. Essex maintained that he had projected a voyage from Cadiz to Terceira, for the purpose of intercepting this rich prize, and that he certainly should have succeeded in doing so had he not been thwarted and overruled by the creatures of the Cecils. Old Burghley, who made some false steps to recover the good-will of Essex-things almost unaccountable in such a man- was called to his face a miscreant and coward, and driven for a time from court. Essex was somewhat over-proud and confident on this victory, but not being capable of a lasting hatred, he consented, in the course of a few months, to a regular treaty of peace and amity with the Cecils, which was managed, for his own purposes, by Sir Walter Raleigh. But in the beginning of the year 1597 Essex quarrelled with the queen for promoting his personal enemy, Henry Lord Cobham, to the office of warden of the Cinque-ports, which he, Essex, had petitioned Elizabeth to grant to his near connection, Sir Robert Sidney. He left the court, and was mounting his horse to go into Wales when the queen pressingly recalled him, and to pacify him made him master of the ordnance. Philip of Spain was now preparing a new Armada. The English cabinet resolved to anticipate this attack, and after some struggles with the queen's economy, they fitted out a powerful armament for

by which time the men had eaten up all their provisions. Although Essex captured three Spanish ships, which were returning | from the Havannah, and which were valued at £100,000, and although he took, in the Azores, the isles of Fayal, Graciosa, and Flores, which the English could not keep, his expedition was considered a failure. A Spanish fleet had threatened the English coast in his absence, and on his return the queen received him with frowns and reproaches. The earl, who was further incensed by some steps gained in the government by Sir Robert Cecil and his friends, retired to his house at Wanstead in Essex, and, under pretence of sickness, refused to go either to court or parliament. But the queen, who was constantly quarrelling with him when present, could not bear his prolonged absence, and she got him back by creating him hereditary earl-marshal.

At this moment Spain, which for some time had been secretly negotiating with France, intimated that it would gladly include England in a general peace, and in the month of May, 1598, Sir Robert Cecil, who had been on a mission to Paris, brought direct proposals for a treaty. The Cecils, with all the rest of that tribe, insisted that these proposals should be entertained, but the warlike Essex argued hotly for a continuation of hostilities. The dispute in the cabinet grew violent, and old Burghley, losing his temper altogether, told Essex that he thought of nothing but blood and slaughter, and drawing out of his pocket a psalm-book, pointed to the words "blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days." The Cecil party carried the majority of the nation with them. In the meanwhile Henry IV. of France had signed with Philip the treaty of Vervins, by which he recovered possession of

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